Secret recordings of Kim Jong Il reveal him dismissing his people as ‘close-minded’

SECRET recordings of Kim Jong Il made by a couple kidnapped by the late North Korean despot reveal his disgust for his own countrymen.

Staff writers

News Corp Australia NetworkNovember 2, 201612:28am

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2009 during a visit to a power station. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

SECRET recordings of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reveal the despot dismissing his countrymen as narrow-minded and mocking his small stature.

The tapes were smuggled out of the country by two South Korean filmmakers who were abducted by North Korean agents in the late 70s, CNN reports.

Actor Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok were forced to make movies for the regime for eight years.

Actor Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok were kidnapped in 1978 by the North Korean regime. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

During that time they secretly recorded their meetings with the reclusive leader using a hidden microcassette recorder.

The recordings, showcased in a new documentary, The Lovers and the Despot, reveal Kim talking in a high-pitched voice about his frustrations with the quality of the movies his country had been producing.

Known to be a big movie fan, Kim is heard saying: “Why do all of our films have the same ideological plots? There is nothing new about them.

“We don’t have any films that get into film festivals. But in South Korea, they have better technology. They are like college students; we are just in nursery school. People here are so close minded.”

Kim Jong Il, left, was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un after he died in 2011. Picture: APSource:News Limited

He is heard apologising to the pair about the kidnapping method and promising cash and resources for the film industry.

According to Choi he also made fun of his small stature during their first encounter. “Look at me,” she said he told her. “Aren’t I small.”

The moviemakers — who made 17 films for the regime — eventually defected to the West after slipping their minders during a trip to Europe.

Film Clip: 'The Lovers and The Despot'1:29

Watch a film clip from "The Lovers and The Despot," Robert Cannan and Ross Adam’s stranger-than-fiction documentary. The film tells the story of South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee. Photo: Magnolia Pictures

“My jaw dropped,” said David Straub, a Korea specialist at the State Department who handled the tapes, according to CNN.

“Hours and hours of recordings of Kim Jong Il speaking relatively freely would be an intelligence windfall for the American government, since we’d never heard him speak before, much less privately.”

Kim Jong Il was known to be a big movie fan. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:News Limited

Greg Scarlatoiu, of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told CNN that the tapes showed that Kim’s paranoia and insecurity and that this trait is surely shared by his son, Kim Jong Un, who took power after his father died in 2011.

“Just like his father before, this leader of North Korea must suffer from a complex of inferiority as well,” he said. “The insecurity was surely something that Kim Jong Un inherited.”